Delightfully Gluten Free (TM)

Gluten-Free Birthdays

I know I’ve been spacey lately – there’s been so much going on.  I think I’ve finally gotten the allergens out of my house that have been plaguing me the past 2 months (and I got a new vacuum in the process).

A couple of weeks ago, my mom decided to throw a birthday party for me.  It’s an excellent excuse to get my little brother and his wife to come visit.  🙂

Usually, I end up baking my own cake and getting most of the food.  This year, Mom wanted me to have less to do and I didn’t have time to go to the store anyways.  So I sent her off to Costco and told her to look for the magic words on packages.

She bought some things she already knew I could have, like nuts, chocolate-covered raisins, Jelly Bellies, and FoodShouldTasteGood multigrain chips.  She also found some new things for us to try.

For our meat, we had a trio of Aidells mini sausages (please be aware that not all of their products are gluten-free), chicken and apple, Cajun style Andouille, and sun-dried tomato and mozzarella.  The package stated they were gluten-free and pork-free.  This was a good choice, since my little sister-in-law does not eat pork, and the first time any of us had tried an Aidells product.

Most of us found them to be very good (with the only exceptions being Braden and my father, who is crazy-picky and doesn’t try new things).  The Cajun ones were pretty spicy, but very tasty.  My nephew and niece ate most of the chicken and apple ones themselves.

Mom had also purchased some of the larger chicken and apple sausages.  We had some this week, and at first, they were not well-received.  The casing is pretty thick, though fairly easy to remove.  The second time I prepared them (browning slices in a skillet), I slit the casing with a knife and easily tore it off.  The kids liked them a whole lot more with the casing removed, and ate quite a few of the slices.

Another brand-new product (and company) to us, Boulder Canyon Rice and Adzuki Bean Chipotle Cheese snack chips were a huge hit!

Oh my gosh, these were so tasty.  A bag of these from Costco is pretty big, and we nearly demolished it all in a couple of hours.  I managed to score some to keep for the next couple of days, but was very sad when I went to eat some and found them all gone.

I know they will definitely be on my list for my next trip to Costco.

.

.

.

In place of a regular birthday cake, my older brother made a chocolate orange cheesecake.  I gave him some Mi-Del gluten-free ginger snaps to use for the crust.  He was very careful and mixed everything by hand in order to keep it completely gluten-free (though if my brain had been working properly, I would have let him borrow my hand mixer).  It was extremely nice to not have to make my own birthday cake.

Do you have anyone in your life that will go the extra mile to make you feel safe and special?

Sarah (my niece, 2 years) and Corice (17 months)

Posted

in

by

Tags: